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Artorias Of The Abyss
Knight Artorias/Sir Artorias the Abysswalker/Artorias of the Abyss One of the Four Knights of Anor Londo and friends with Gough and Ciaran. Artorias was a holy warrior and master swordsman. He was present during the fall of New Londo, being awarded a blessed pendant for his role in helping stave off the Darkwraiths, although there are those who believe he willingly made a covenant with the Abyss instead given how he was able to enter its void. He is one of the main characters encountered in the Artorias of the Abyss Downloadable Content, and his relevance to the story is greatly expanded upon. After being tainted by the Abyss, he becomes completely unstable, recklessly and relentlessly charging at the player, as well as howling and screaming like a maddened beast. During his boss fight, full stop. He roars wildly like an animal multiple times, often times gaining a power boost as he does it. He uses wild, insane leaping attacks, both vertical and horizontal spin attacks. He recklessly and relentlessly charges at the player. It makes sense considering his inspiration and the state you find him in. In attempting to save Oolacile from the spread of the Abyss, he was swiftly defeated and corrupted by Manus, to the point where he literally seeps darkness from his very being when you encounter him.It's mentioned that, while the Abyss is clearly aligned with darkness and is pretty dangerous (though not necessarily malevolent), that the very fact that Artorias had none of humanity's darkness within him ("nary a murmur of Dark", as Elizabeth puts it) was the reason why he was unable to defeat Manus, Father Of The Abyss. He failed to save Oolacile from the Abyss and became possessed as a result. His cut-dialogue has him blame himself for his moment of weakness. He's been described by Elizabeth as having "nary a murmur of Dark". When attempting to save Oolacile from the spread of the Abyss, Manus trashed him and corrupted him to the point where he has become little more than a husk of himself, channeling the power of the Abyss when you meet him in the content. It's strongly implied that if Artorias' other arm weren't broken, you would have absolutely no chance of beating him. If his unused dialogue was any indication. Artorias respected the skills of fellow knights and knew when he was fighting his betters. His helmet is really more of an armoured hood, adding to his ethereal, ghostly appearance. Pre-corruption Artorias is said to have been brave, selfless and heroic. Hell, his last mission was to save a city and rescue a princess! Before becoming corrupted by the Abyss, Artorias was one of Gwyn's most heroic knights. His unused dialogue would have had him brutally blaming himself for getting possessed. Special mention goes to begging for forgiveness from a hallucination of Sif and anyone else he would of seen in his final moments. Artorias was widely respected by both knights and civilians. Ciaran developed feelings for him, Gough respected him and Sif served him happily and loyally. Unfortunately, Artorias was possessed by the Abyss while he was trying to contain it and save Ooalacile. His death has had such an impact on the public that 2 covenants were formed in his honor. The Forest Hunter covenant was formed to protect his grave, whereas, the Abyss Watchers were formed in his honor to protect the world from the spread of the Abyss. Lord's Blade Ciaran One of the Four Knights of Anor Londo. She was a mistress at using daggers and worked as the group's subterfuge and assassination expert. A corpse carrying her Hornet Ring is found near Artorias' grave, indicating that she was the first to safeguard his grave. The only female member of the Four Knights, meaning she's one of the deadliest women in the history of Lordran. Ciaran and the rest of the Lord's Blades. Just like Artorias and Gough, she makes her first appearance in the new content, mourning the loss of her friend, Artorias, after the player defeats him. Her weapons and armour are also made available to the player if they either hand over the Soul of Artorias or simply kill her. note She wears a porcelain cyclops mask that's carved to resemble a feminine visage and has locks of white hair woven into it. Seeing as she gives the player her weapons as thanks for Artorias' Soul, a particularly devious player might think that she'd be disarmed and therefore an easy kill. Nope, she has a backup pair. Wears a ring that boost such attacks, and, combined with her weapons, one of which boasts the highest critical modifier in the game, this means you should avoid showing your back or getting parried by her since she will usually kill you in one hit due to the aforementioned boosts. Her porcelain cyclops mask, which was common gear for the Lord's Blades. Although, there is a way to manipulate the camera in order to look through her mask and helmet. She has a generic female NPC face for the most part, except the model lacks hair. May simply be a clipping issue, though. Just like Gough, she will express her disdain at humans if you choose to attack and kill her, as she thinks of them as nothing more than All Take and No Give. Given that (a) you're trying to kill her, (b) you just killed the man she loved, and © you're in the middle of a city destroyed by a Humanity stampede, it's more justified than most. Though she's more calm and reserved than most cases, it's clear, that Artorias's death has greatly affected Ciaran. So much so that the last thing she does before dying is to call out his name. If you do decide to give her Artorias' soul, she trades you her weapons, saying that she "no longer has any need for them". Note that this is the leader of an elite group of assassins— her giving away her weapons essentially means she gave up the life she once had, and the rank she worked hard for, to spend the rest of her days guarding the grave of the man she loved. She fights with grace and sophistication, twirling her weapons as if she is dancing. To Artorias, enough for her to renounce her vows as a Knight of Anor Londo and leader of the Lord's Blades right then and there so she can guard his grave along with Sif. Hawkeye Gough One of the Four Knights of Anor Londo. He led the great-archers during the war against the dragons. He and the Giant Blacksmith are well acquainted, and Gough left his Hawk Ring with the Blacksmith after he retired. He, along with Artorias and Ciaran, makes his first appearance in the additional content. Gough commissions the player to defeat the last of the ancient dragons, the Black Dragon Kalameet. Was attacked and blinded by villagers despite being an esteemed knight of Gwyn. He's not too bothered by this, however. If you choose to attack and kill him, he expresses mild annoyance at you, before turning into full-fledged disdain for humans. It's implied that his mutilation and subsequent imprisonment was committed by people who saw him as nothing but a brutish giant. An unusual case to the usual examples. The longbows used by his Dragonslayer archers were built big enough to have them be required to be anchored to the ground in order to be fired. It doesn't help that the "arrows" it uses are cited as iron spears, and appear as such. Gough's own greatbow was a unique in-and-of itself, massive compared to the ones used by his archers. He even makes his own arrows, personally crafting the stone arrowheads and tightly wrapping the arrow shaft with tree bark. He spends his time whittling the vocal gesture carvings found in the new content. And they're carved from Archtrees. He consideres the ancient dragons this, and remarks upon the war with them by remembering how the dragons were an enemy who brought out the knights' "dearest emotions." He's also fully aware he's dipping into nostalgia about them as well. Elizabeth The first new NPC found in the Prepare to Die Edition / Artorias of the Abyss expansion. She's the keeper of the Oolacile Sanctuary Garden and the Royal Wood (aka the future Darkroot Forest). One of several cameos-as-corpses you can find in Dark Souls III, in a cave in Farron Keep along with an unidentified body strongly implied to be Dusk's (looting it nets you a scroll of Oolacile magic and her dress can be found nearby). An odd In-Universe variant; Dark Souls II's description of the item "Elizabeth Mushroom" gives a rather flattering description of her by using the term "sublime beauty". Or woman, to be exact. Though she can see and talk, she appears to be rooted and stationary. Upon meeting her, she recognizes you as Princess Dusk's savior, but pleads for you to rescue her yet again, this time from Manus the Father of the Abyss. This also ensures a Stable Time Loop where the Chosen Undead kills Manus and rescues Dusk, with the truth hidden by Elizabeth so that the legend goes that it was Artorias who did the deed, and that Dusk can't help but think that Artorias looks a lot like the Player Character in the present-day game. Marvelous Chester A new NPC found in the new content. Like the player, he was grabbed by the black hand and dragged into past Oolacile. He acts as a merchant and sells various PVP consumables and arrows, albeit at a higher price than other merchants. His usage of the Sniper Crossbow and the item descriptions of his armor set suggests that he's an aristocrat from Carim, the same country where sinister figures like Arstor, Oswald and Lautrec come from. He also invades you in the Oolacile Township while you're human. He can still act as a merchant after his defeat, but will be insulted over being beaten. Like the player character, he was dragged back in time by Manus; however, it's distinctly more obvious with Chester since his style of clothing deliberately clashes with the rest of the game, being more Steampunk in design than Medieval European Fantasy. Chester's dark outfit, Slasher Smile, British voice, and laughter that is subtitled as "mwah-ha-ha" definitely don't radiate trustworthiness. And then he invades you. Sanctuary Guardian The manticore guardian of the Oolacile Sanctuary Garden and the very first thing the Chosen Undead encounters in the new content. If you want to experience the majority of the new content, you have to get past it first. Made even more jarring since you can access the content as early as entering the Duke's Archives, thus not exactly equipped for enemies harder than the endgame dungeon. It has the tail of a scorpion that can poison you if struck. Luckily, you can cut it off. It has a lot of attacks on hand that make reading it more difficult than usual. It can blast several variants of lightning, charge forward, unleash a flurry of attacks with its claws and teeth, strike with its tail, and it can launch attacks from both the ground and the air. It's a manticore, a winged, horned, scorpion-tailed lion (though it lacks the optional human face). Since it's a manticore, the main body is that of a white-furred lion. Oolacile Residents The former citizens of Oolacile, transformed into bestial creatures as the city collapsed into the Abyss. Absolutely, unambiguously insane. They move like animals, constantly scream and cackle, and have generally forsaken all signs of civilization or higher intelligence beyond spellcasting. Their sickly pale skin and grossly distended bodies are bad enough, but their heads have turned into hive-like structures with plenty of eyes and tentacles. They used to be normal people before Manus was unearthed and the Abyss spread into the city. The Chained Prisoner A strange entity chained up at the very bottom of Oolacile Township, just outside the elevator into Oolacile Dungeon. It blocks the path to the Chasm of the Abyss, and provides a suitably difficult fight for its late-game placement. What little lore there is implies that it was a person whose humanity went out of control, causing them to suffer a similar fate to the Oolacile Residents, but on an even grander scale due to its proximity to the Abyss itself. Manus, Father of the Abyss The main antagonist of the new content, Manus is described as being a primeval human and an abyssal creature. Needless to say, he's the single most spoileriffic character in the entire game. Whatever he is, you don't meet him in a sane state, with all the brutal beatdown and crazed flurries you're about to receive. Gough is under the impression that the residents of Oolacile somehow drove him to his insanity but there's no evidence either way. He is the creator of Dark sorcery, something he puts to good use against you during the boss fight. He is responsible for tainting Artorias with the power of the Abyss and making the citizen of Oolacile's humanity go out of control, turning them into mindless monsters. His influence is so great that the various fragments that reformed into a human shape in Dark Souls II follow a similar approach in order to topple various great kingdoms. But still incredibly dangerous. Manus does not attack out of pure malice or evil, rather he was driven to an insane frenzy by his Humanity when the citizens of Oolacile disturbed his grave; by the time you storm the Chasm of the Abyss he's nothing more than a crazed and wild animal that needs to be put out of his misery before he harms anything else. Even when it's revealed in the sequel that his remnants (aside from one) plan to swamp the world in Dark, it can be seen as more of them having a severe case of Blue and Orange Morality rather than For the Evulz. In III you even meet another of his fragments, who despite being a Child of Dark just wants a peaceful life. Manus was initially an ordinary human being, quite possibly the Furtive Pygmy, who was described as a Non-Action Guy in the prologue. Then his Humanity went out of control, turning him into the darkest possible monster the Dark Souls universe has ever known. Despite having died prior to the vanilla game (your fight with him took place in the past), he, or rather what he represents, is the underlying force perpetuating Dark Souls's Vicious Cycle where the First Flame must be kept lit. One of the reasons being that the First Flame keeps the Abyss (the unfettered form of the Dark Soul) at bay, and should that fail, all humans would likely turn into monsters like Manus. His role also perpetuates well into the sequel, where his shattered fragments have reformed into humanoid beings intent on spreading his legacy of plunging the world into darkness. His ultimate goal is to plunge the entire world into the Abyss/Dark, and the limited outbreak in Oolacile (which killed most of the population and turned the rest into mindless, murderous, and mutated abominations) demonstrates that this will be a much less pleasant fate for it than Kaathe would have you believe. He, like all descendants of the Furtive Pygmy, was gifted with a shard of the Pygmy's unique Lord Soul, dubbed the Dark Soul. However, his soul went out of control and became the embodiment of the Abyss, the true menace that justifies the First Flame's existence. It's revealed in the sequel's flavour text that the tiniest fragment of his shattered soul lived on within Queen Nashandra, the Big Bad of that game who strives to bring about the Dark to Drangleic. His remains are also said to have formed the Dark Chasm of Old in which the terrifyingly powerful Darklurker resides, though the latter's exact origins are not expanded any further (and for good reason). The Lost Crowns Trilogy also adds three more Children of Dark: Elana the Squalid Queen, Nadalia the Bride of Ash, and Alsanna the Silent Oracle. Elana keeps on bidding her time for vengeance, presumably against the person who defeated Manus; Nadalia attempted to become the corrupt queen to the Old Iron King, but then found out he was gone, forcing her to haunt various object in the stronghold known as the Brume Tower; Alsanna, unlike her "soul sisters", was to become the Lady Macbeth to the Ivory King, but the latter showed compassion that the other kings were never mentioned to give, leading to a Heel–Face Turn. Dark Souls III adds a fifth Child of the Dark, Karla, though like Alsanna she's friendly, is immediately up-front with the player character about her true nature, and will teach them various Abyss-themed Miracles, Sorceries, and Pyromancies if she's rescued. A Primordial Serpent tricked the people of Oolacile into awakening him while he laid dormant for an untold amount of time, and they paid dearly for it. In the end, Manus is nothing more than the end result of what would happen if the First Flame were to fade into the dark. Even when transformed into a monster, the lore states that he spent centuries searching for his precious Broken Pendant, which somehow made it to your timeline. Dusk of Oolacile, if talked to in the present after saving her in the past, ponders if he really was a true beast, and Alsanna, the embodiment of Manus' fears, is one of the more sympathetic characters in the sequel, having found solace from her nature as a child of Dark destined to corrupt the world. Hawkeye Gough also states that while a serpent tricked the residents of Oolacile into waking him up, they were the ones who did so and then did things to the creature that drove it mad. There is also a human sized grave in the arena where you fight Manus implying that he was still human when they dug him up and his transformation is the result of whatever the locals did to him to make his humanity run wild. Is implied to have once been the Furtive Pygmy, or at least a close descendant of him whose own humanity (or Lord Soul) had gone out of control and turned him into the monster you meet at the end of the content. Black Dragon Kalameet An optional boss in the new content, Kalameet is said to be the last of the ancient dragons (excluding Seath, who abandoned their ranks during the great war). As a dragon, this is to be expected but is also notable in that Kalameet breathes black flames. Even after emerging as victorious during the war against the dragons, Hawkeye Gough says that the whole of Anor Londo wouldn't dare provoke Kalameet's ire. In Dark Souls II, all that's left of any mention of Kalameet, or the Black Dragon as they say, is the tale of a magnificent battle against a brave warrior, in which the dragon lost its tail, which would eventually be used to forge several legendary weapons. Many of those weapons end up being in the possession of the Dragon Remnants covenant, with most of its apostles residing in the Dragon Shrine far above Drangleic. The records of this tale are even said to be more scarce than the paledrake, aka Seath the Scaleless. As noted in his description, Kalameet is considered the last of the ancient dragons, with the exceptions of Seath, the Stone Dragon in Ash Lake, Sinh the Slumbering Dragon, and Darkeater Midir. Anor Londo is unaware of the Stone Dragon and Sinh, however. His is a play on the word "calamity", as evidenced by the Calamity Ring he drops.